I follow the teachings of Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, United States Marine Corps. He won two Congressional Medals of Honor, and he wrote the highly controversial antiwar book ‘War is a Racket.’
I was blessed with a long career where I won gold medals for myself and my country. Nothing stands out as a disappointment.
When you turn professional with the amount of medals that I’ve won, then you have to assume that big things are expected of you and I’ve always tried my best to live with that.
For six years, I kept my five Olympic medals wrapped in a plastic bread bag beneath my bed.
Nobody talks about my contribution to the sport. Nobody talks about the 101 medals I have won in my 20-year career. Nobody talks about the efforts I made to attain those heights.
Something that I saw in Sochi that I didn’t get the opportunity to have in Vancouver was the team holding hands with arms in the air and medals around their neck.
